


The Drive

by hashtagyourshirt



Series: In Session [5]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 07:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13336575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hashtagyourshirt/pseuds/hashtagyourshirt
Summary: After re-ensouling Angel, Willow drives Faith back to Sunnydale.





	The Drive

Faith knew it wasn't over.  _ How could it be?  _

She rested her head against the passenger side window. The stars danced in the jet black night’s sky. She hadn't seen stars in years. In prison, she was never outside at night, and in LA, between the plague of darkness and the city lights, the stars never reached her.  

Willow sped down the twisting road along the coast that connected LA and Sunnydale. It had been a long two days in LA, yet she wasn't tired. It felt good to use her power to restore Angel’s soul. 

_ Cordelia was tucked in bed, one hand just beneath the surface of the sheets. “Oh, you really think you can pull it off?”  _

_ Willow smiled. “Putting his soul back? It’s the first spell I ever learned. I’m not gonna forget that.”  _ _   
_

A commercial on the radio buzzed softly as the two women sat in silence. 

“We’re about an hour out now. Shouldn't be too long,” Willow announced.  The slayer to her right grunted noncommittally. Conversation had never been easy between them. 

“So,” Willow racked her brain for something to talk about. “Do you feel up to speed about Sunnydale?” Work talk, hopefully simple. 

Faith lifted her head from the window. “Yeah, for the most part.” She took a deep breath and rolled her neck to stretch it. “Some baddy is trying to end the slayer line.” She exhaled. “Glad I can help.” 

“Me too.” 

The radio station turned to fuzz as they exited the range of the LA based program. Faith flicked through the channels for a while. She finally settled on classic rock;  _ War Pigs  _ leaked from the speakers. 

“So, how long this been going on?” Faith tried to sound nonchalant, but her mind was racing.  Something was trying, and nearly succeeding, to end the Slayer Line. This meant something was after  _ her _ . She knew, for all intents and purposes, she was the one the Line began with.  _ Or ended,  _ Faith thought darkly. 

“Uh,” Willow stalled, “Not too long honestly.”  She thought back on when the Scoobies had finally put together the pieces with The First.  

_ A being wearing the face of a dead teenage girl stood before Willow in the University library, “Fact is, the whole good-versus-evil, balancing the scales thing—I'm over it. I'm done with the mortal coil. But believe me, I'm going for a big finish.” _

_ WIllow’s heart began to race.  “From beneath you, it devours,” she whispered. _

_ The being smiled wide, “Not it, me.” _

“It kinda took us a bit to put it all together,” she mumbled.  “You know, that it was The First.”

The road stretched out before them, not another car in sight.  

Faith grunted again.  

“Well, things were happening, not so cuddly things.  Giles was the one that really helped us see what was going on,” the witch finished.  

“Not much has changed, huh?”

Willow smiled grimly. “You'd be surprised.”

Faith looked at her for the first time in an hour. “What makes you say that?” 

Willow used to cower under the slightly younger woman's cat-like gaze. The redhead sighed. 

“We’re all different,” Willow gripped the steering wheel tighter. “We're older. Things have just,” she shook her head, “Changed.”

Faith examined the witch closely. She could tell Willow was different. She could tell something had...happened. “What’s going on, Red?” She turned to face Willow completely now. “What are you not putting together for me?” 

“Well,” Willow stammered, her neck burning. She composed herself.   _ You’re not exactly the only Miss Try-To-Kill-All-My-Friends Sunnydale. _  “I did some things,” her knuckles shone white against the dark steering wheel, her eyes glazed over slightly.  

_ Warren was tied to two trees, his arms outstretched in a horrible interruption of the crucifixion, babbling desperately.   _

_ “When you get caught, you’ll lose them to: your friends,” he said between pants. “You don’t want that. I know you’re in pain but-” _

_ “Bored now,” Willow interrupted, with a lazy flick of her hand, ripping off every each of Warren’s skin in one go.  _

“Things that I wish I hadn’t.”  

Faith looked at the slightly older woman without blinking.  She fought back the urge to make a joke to cheapen the moment, make it less real.  

“What do you mean?” the brunette Slayer asked, almost afraid of the answer.

_ Willow’s eyes were dark as the room she knelt in cradling her lover’s body.   _

_ “Bring her back!” she screamed at the divine being clouding her room, her girlfriend’s, her other half, tomb. _

“I lost someone.”  Willow’s eyes stayed trained on the road. 

Faith’s brow furrowed.  “I’m sorry.”  

“Did they mean a lot to you?” she asked, kicking herself immediately for such an insensitive question.

_ Willow’s eyes were dark as the room she knelt in cradling her lover’s body.   _

_ “Bring her back!” she screamed at the divine being clouding her room, her girlfriend’s, her other half, tomb. _

“She meant everything to me.” 

The pair zoomed past a sign stating Sunnydale was only 40 miles away.  

_ Suggested listening: Floorplan by Sara Bareilles, The Con X  _

“You met her, you know.”

“What?” Faith was pulled from her aimless thoughts as she stared out of her window. 

Willow readjusted her grip on the steering wheel, staring down the road before her.  “You met her. Two, maybe even three year ago.” She took a deep breath. “You knew right away about us, that we were more than friends.” 

Faith remained silent.

“You knew before Buffy that she was more to me,” Willow said with a deep breath. “How?”

Faith shifted uncomfortably in her seat.  “I don’t know,” she grumbled, picking at her finger nails. “Just sensed it I guess.” 

“Hmm,” Willow responded, not really hearing the slayer next to her. 

“So, she’s-“

“Tara.”

“Tara,” Faith repeated slowly. “She’s who you lost?” 

Willow gave such a small nod anyone less than a slayer would have missed it. She plundered on as though she needed to say this, and that she needed Faith to hear it. 

“I lost myself, too.” She rolled her shoulders, both tight under her ears. “Became addicted to the magicks. Became someone Buffy couldn’t trust.”

Faith could barely believe what she was hearing, but didn’t dare interrupt. 

“I was finally getting better, finally was someone to somebody important.” Willow’s voice was tight in her mouth. She cleared her throat. “And I lost her forever. The bullet wasn’t even meant for her.” Willow took a breath. “Some  _ human  _ tried to kill Buffy and he killed T-“ She took another deep breath, her voice calm in a way that Faith knew took practice. 

“He killed Tara instead. So, I killed him.”

Just as Faith was about to say something, anything, Willow pressed on. 

“I’d never felt so much pain in my life. I just wanted it all to end. And I didn’t care who I brought down with me.” 

Faith wracked her brain for the right thing to say. Her heart ached for Willow; she could feel her sorrow rolling off her in waves. 

“I never truly understood how lost someone could feel until I lost her.” 

“I’m sorry, Re-“ she exhaled. “Willow.”

Willow met Faiths eyes for a moment, daringly taking them off the road. 

“I’m sorry,” Willow began, flashing her resolve face to keep the younger slayer from interrupting. “I’m sorry for how I treated you, Faith. I’m sorry it took me going through such terrible pain to be able to possibly understand yours.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through anything like my pain at all.” Faith fiddled with the fabric on the door next to her.  

They sat in relative silence for a moment, until it was ended abruptly by a loud commercial for a furniture store’s liquidation sale. Faith flipped through the stations catching a rapid mix of the news, a mariachi band, and the oldies. 

“We should be there soon,”  Willow offered; 15 miles to Sunnydale.

Faith straightened up in her seat.  “They all know I’m coming?”  She had wondered when to ask this. Faith wasn’t sure any of the folks in Sunnydale wanted to see her.  She never did hear a response from Buffy after she had sent that letter.   _ Kate,  _ Faith thought.   _ I wish she could help me through this. I’m sure she’d be proud of me going back, facing this head on. _

“Yep,” Willow replied, her regular Willow-ness back in full force.

“Good.”

They remained silent until Willow pulled outside the Summer’s house. 

“Wow,” Faith whispered to herself. “Same old house.”

“Yeah, and jam-packed with even more slayers than ever before,” Willow murmured cheerily. “Ready Freddy?”

Faith let out a laugh. “Yeah.”

The pair walked up the pathway to the house. Faith was at a loss as to how she was back here again. 

They paused on the porch. Faith looked over at Willow, expecting to see her pulling out her house key, but was met with her warm gaze. 

“I’m glad you’re back with us,” she said in a hushed voice, pulling Faith into an unexpected hug. A moment passed before Faith had the wherewithal to hug her back. 

“Me too, Red.” 

They both smiled as they pulled apart moments later, Faith ready to cross the threshold and face whatever came next. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr at hashtagyourshirt


End file.
